by Ethan Clark

Amongst Oakdale’s plethora of successful sports teams, there are several equally impressive academic based teams. Among these is a lesser known group, English Teacher Ms. Alexia Isacco’s Mock Trial team. The team is 2-2 this season, as of February 12th, 2016. In order to gain more publicity for this underappreciated team, The Oakdale Paw Print interviewed one of their members, Justin Friday.

Friday, a junior, was asked to explain just what Mock Trial is: “[It is a] competition where two schools take on roles in prosecution and defense in a simulated trial.”

He also claimed, “The Mock Trial program does not receive enough recognition, and it should be regarded as a mainstream team sport.”

In essence, this is a team dedicated to symbolizing the justice system and demonstrating their knowledge and skills as future lawyers. Their record goes to show that good defense isn’t exclusive to football.

Mock Trial’s latest meet occurred on February 2nd and was a hard fought case between Oakdale and Catoctin. Unfortunately, Catoctin came out victorious. This dropped The Bear’s record to 2-2, with hopes of rebounding against Urbana on the 17th.

The case this year is a civil case about sports injuries, in which Oakdale was trying to convict the fictional Sports League of negligence. The fictional injury was something, given recent cinema, you might expect to see Will Smith prosecuting. A player had received a head injury while playing lacrosse, and the prosecution felt as though they held an auspicious position to prove the defendant guilty.

Despite the loss, the Paw Print is sure that the team will rebound and lead Oakdale to another Circuit Championship.